Chapter 15: Chapter 15

AND LIFE GOES ON.

Khadija raised her apron to her face and cleaned the sweat dripping down her brows, this was supposed to be her favorite work. Going around the kitchen, making whichever meals she was ordered to do. Of course, she was always ordered to do anything she was going to do, when she was still working in the palace, but.....

Now, she does what she wants to, with no one pressurizing her as to when she should cook and how she should do.

Her favorite work, only that, this time around she was doing it for Madok.

Madok Zadir. The same man who had hurt her beyond description.

TWO YEARS AGO

Khadija came back from work, she had begun working in a restaurant, the pay was extremely nice. $5800 a week was something tangible, and the tips she got from the customers there was also good.

It wasn't something compared to the payment she got while she was still working in the palace, but at least, it wasn't like she had a house rent to pay, or a child to feed.

It was just herself and Madok, the younger brother to Rashid Zadir.

Talking about a child. The man, Madok was just foolish, extremely foolish to have just believed that Khadija lost the baby.

Of course, there was no baby from the start, it was just Khadija and herself, no one else.

It was Aaminas' plan, so he would be punished and take up his responsibility, any other reason as to why Aamina pressurized Khadija to report him, she wasn't aware, but yeah, there was a reason behind the facade.

In between the years was just so hard for her, she had taken so much shit from Madok, helped him to bed, fed him properly, taken care of him like he really deserved it. Hoping and thinking that there was going to be a way out of his joblessness.

His punishment hadn't stopped there, Emir Abdul, Madok and Rashids' father had made sure he doesn't get any job, Madok had tried in so many places, restaurant, security services, there was no where he hasn't gone to, even offered to be a postman, but.... once his identity card had been looked at, he was immediately declined.

The Emir had made sure that he never gets a job, true to his words, he had vowed to make him suffer, untold suffering, which he would never forget.

Madok hadn't only hurt Khadija, all the palace maids had Benn defiled over and over again by him, but, words never got out, he threatened them and also warned them. If the Emir ever got to know about his acts, then they would surely go in for it. So all of them kept mute.

Emir Abdul had asked all of them if Ex-prince Madok had ever forcefully slept with them, but they all lied, giving him a negative response, until he had talked about inviting the Voodoo man, they hastily opened up to him.

Everyone was far from speechless, it angered the Emir more, that so much atrocities had been going right beneath his nose, and he wasn't even aware of it. No one had spoken up, no one had let him know, it hadn't come to his notice about it.

He sent them home packing, he gave them their severance pay, and even more than enough, and told them to go. He wasn't going to allow dumb and coward people to keep working for him.

If he knew, only if he knows about the bigger atrocities his wife committed and still commits, he wouldn't have termed his son as the worst.

Beneath the smiles of Queen Amancia, lay a deceitful and cunning woman, but... guess who was more cunny, Aamina, and she was ready, very ready to make sure the both of them, the Queen and her ex-husband, goes down for all the atrocities they had been committing.

PRESENT DAY

Khadija was about doing the dishes when a strong but firm hand stopped her from going further, she inhaled sharply, until the hand turned her waist to face him.

Madok, their both gazes collided, met, and held. She cowered suddenly. Over the years, Madok had drastically change, from the overbearing bully and pompous prince to a humble lamb. He always helped with house chores, treated her like a glass, which requires so much care, for it not to get broken.

Now, she gave way for him, trying to scurry away from his hold, the feeling she had for him hadn't even diminished a bit even after what he did to her, she was angry yeah, hurt, very much hurt by what he did to her. He had broken her down mentally, physically, but mostly psychologically. He had tainted the rational part of her brain and she wasn't even sure she could be able to get that again.

His mother, the Queen, had been a bad parent to him. Madok wasn't ever like this, but still, it was too sudden, so sudden, for him to have accepted his fate. Madok wasn't the one to give up, yet she also wanted to believe that he has really changed for good.

"You seem tired, let me help with the dishes", he finally spoke, offering to help her wash the plates.

"You should rest, I know you want to do this, but please.....", he hesitated, before he continued. "Let me just finish this up", he continued, rubbing the lower part of her arm.

"E-er-er-eeerm", she stammered, not even knowing what to say.

This was her own little way of trying to think, gain her sanity, working continuously and tirelessly, made her not to soliloquy, made her not to think nor imagine false environment, hallucinating. The doctor, the same one who Aamina had taken her to, when she was really pregnant for Madok. He had told her that her sanity is leaving gradually and told her the implications of what would happen to her.

She could just run mad in the middle of doing nothing, so as to that, she should always be busy, if she isn't busy, she should be eating, working, sleeping, but she should not allow herself to be idle.

"Don't worry, I would rather do this than doing nothing", Khadija replied.

A frown marred his brow, but, he immediately changed his facial expression, it almost seemed like he didn't just frown.

"Let me help you", he persisted, still patting her lovingly along the lower side of her arm.

She raised her head to look at him, going back and forth with him still insisting on helping her with the dishes won't go anywhere, she would rather give in and continue with her sauce.

"Alright", she said, as she tried getting his hands off her, so she could continue with the beef sauce.

"And that too", he added, referring to the sauce she wanted to continue with.

"But..... you can't cook this, you don't even know how to cook", he interjected.

"You mean this?, Seems like you have forgotten when we both were in our teens, and you always took me to the kitchen whenever my mother........ ", he paused, his eyes already clouding in tears, and his hands which were planted firmly yet gently around her waist had become strong and in a tightening, vise-like grip.

She could apprehend the sudden change of aura, she was damn sure he hated his mother, the Queen, after everything she had made him pass through.

He hardly leaves the house because of the looks on the faces of the people, it was never a good one, it was filled with scorn and loathe. If it wasn't for the decree, about the implications that would be meted out on anyone who dared to lay a finger on him, Khadija was very sure that, he would have been dead by now..... The Emir, his father, knew better.

"It's okay, you know you are really safe from her right?, You rehabilitated and that's good, it shows you are improving, that you're trying to adapt to a new life, even though the other was better, shows you are really sorry for the harms you have meted out on people... it's okay to feel pain, it's really okay to feel like you were cheated enough, it's okay to not be okay", she reassured him.

He drew her closer to himself and hugged her, it was more of an embrace, as his throat made a cackling sound and the years began wetting her dress.

After some minutes, Khadija left the kitchen, giving him some space and time to himself, so he could finish up what he's doing and also to think through how better his life is, although it's a stressing one.

While she left, he began reminiscing over his life, how he had changed from being a Prince to a Pauper, the word Pauper, seemed so big that someone would take it for being a bæstärd billionaire. Pauper - Poor. He was extremely poor.

He was already done with the sauce and closed the pot, as he turned his back to bring the dishes so he could dish out the good, he saw Khadija by the door staring at him.

He knew that look.... of contentment. She certainly was very happy and okay with this present life of hers. He had been a very bad person, he knows that, but.....

"It's okay, it's really okay to be selfish and want all the good things for myself, it's okay to be a little dubious, it's really okay", he thought to himself as he gave her a sly smile.